After returning from Kangaroo Island I saw a job advertised, in the Youth Hostel in Adelaide, with a small mineral exploration company which involved going out into the outback for a few weeks. I phoned the number that afternoon, arranged an interview for the very next day and the day after that the expedition departed into the depths of South Australia. It was an amazing time and experience, not least because we were working in areas of Australia which were so remote that there were no man made frequency signals of any kind – no phone, no radio and no TV – it was just us and the natural environment. Every day we would set off, from the abandoned “Homestead” of which we were based, heading further out into the wilderness while Kangaroos “jumped” at pace adjacent to us as we made our own tracks into the bush, twisting and turning with the lie of the land.
It was so serene and so peaceful, and as I began to acclimatise to the natural environment thoughts that I’d never had before began entering my head. Thoughts that appeared, as if from the ether, about my journey, about its meaning and about how to word my experiences. It felt that simply by just Being outside of the man made electromagnetic smog of civilisation my mind was able to open up completely and my consciousness was “bombarded” with information. It felt like the Universe was speaking to me and I was downloading the programme – Universally speaking!!! 🙂
I began carrying a pen and paper with me at all times, so that I could record my thoughts and wordings, and then one day, after an hour or so’s drive to the site of the days exploration, we began to work and I had the feeling that the last thing I wanted to be doing on that day was working and the thing that I most wanted to be doing was writing, and then the geophys contraption that Brian was using “packed-up”.
“What the bloody hell?!!” I heard Brian exclaim from the centre of the 100 yard square circuit we’d set-up. Then he came traipsing over with the contraption and set it down “Well, I dont know what’s up with the blasted thing” he said. “Will we have to go back and get another one?” I asked. “No… there’s not another one back at camp, I’ll have to try and fix it here” he answered and then proceeded to begin taking the contraption apart! As I stood there, in the middle of nowhere watching Brian open up this machine and begin fiddling about with its electrical components, I began to feel a bit in awe of him. I asked “Brian, how do you know how to fix it?” and he looked up and declared “Easy… because I invented it!!!”
Wow… I went from feeling in awe to being awestruck!!! He was a proper man in the vein of days gone by: self-reliant, inventive and intelligent. And he was a gentleman to go with it… the full ticket… and I felt honoured to witness his Being. He couldn’t fix it though… it was buggered… and after an hour of trying we packed up to go back to the Homestead! And all the way back I was thinking of what I was going to be writing as the “Ayers Rock Adventure” was right on the end of my finger tips!!!!!! 🙂
When we got back, Brian got on with trying to fix the contraption and I asked to borrow his laptop so I could begin to write. He dually let me and then within 5 minutes he came back “The bloody thing’s working now!!!” he said, “What did you do?” I asked, “Nothing… I just switched it on!!! It’s too late to go back out there now though, we’ll have to just take today off.”
“Nice one!” I thought, and continued to write 🙂
I did so every evening after that and Brian enjoyed reading the adventures as I wrote them. He was a wonderful fellow and after we finished the expedition (which was the last one of the season) he offered to give me one of his contraptions “If you take this to Perth, Lee, you can earn loads of bucks” he said. It was so kind of him to offer, and I think that he must’ve had a bit of a soft spot for me to have done so, but I’ve never really understood the concept of money and it didn’t feel right to earn a living by exploiting the Earth in such a way, so I declined. I was simply glad to have had the experience and was grateful for the opportunity I’d been given and all it had taught me.
I’d gained so much knowledge… in more ways than one.
Lots of Love,
Miller
The Adventures of Miller 